This week’s blog will focus on the artisans to be found at stops 4, 5, and 6 of the East Mountain Fiber Farm & Studio Tour, which is this coming weekend June 11 and 12. Get your map here.
Stop 4. The Woolshed at Maple Winds Farm
This stop on the fiber tour is owned and run by Victoria and Robert Collins and is truly a hands on fiber producer. Victoria is proud that this operation is literally from sheep to shawl. They sell fiber for all uses, wool, angora rabbits and alpaca from local producers. They feature handspun wool yarns as well as blends. The Collins are dealers for the well known looms Majacraft and Louet and have many commercial products to sell.
Stop 5. Hollywick Farms Alpacas
Kathy and Bill Herman own and operate Hollywick Farms. Their herd of alpacas are used to visitors and have just been shorn. Come meet the alpacas, feel their fleece and shop for roving, yarns, fashion garments and accessories. Be sure to enter Hollywick Farms’ drawing to win a pair of soft and comfortable alpaca socks.
Annie McHale will also be at Hollywick Farms with her amazing weavings. Annie is a passionate and prolific Inkle weaver. She saw her first Inkle loom when she was 17 years old and with the help of a library book and her dad, Annie built her own loom. Inkle looms produce warp faced bands no wider than 6″. Annie weaves straps for cameras, guitars and other musical instruments as well as belts and other personal accessories. See her endless ways of combining colors into patterns and clever use of new materials, techniques and inspirations.
Stop 6. Whispering Spirit Alpacas
This stop is our alpaca breeding and fabric creating location. We have a herd of 30 alpacas and two llamas (yes, you will notice the difference). Stop up at the barn, where Lee will introduce you to the animals, especially our new cria Normandie (born just yesterday) and show you this year’s harvest. See how we skirt the fiber to ready it for the mill. Then come down and join Sandy in the Fabric Design Center (a/k/a the garage). She will show you the equipment we use to make our textiles and will have deep mark downs on our Whispirit designs from this past winter. We will also have several new offerings fresh off the design table and ready for the boutiques. You get first dibs before we deliver. And, we will have felted fabric, prefelts, bags of felted remnant, batts, roving and raw fiber for sale. The purple scarf pictured above will be raffled off at our ranch.
Check out last week’s post for info on the other half of the tour, and join us this weekend! We look forward to seeing you.
